Violent forests, local people and the role of the state in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Conservation organizations have transferred the responsibility to protect and conserve natural environments to paramilitary rangers and forest guards. This, they argue, enhances the protection of endangered species from deleterious harvesting. For resource-dependent local people, the use of militarized personnel and practices worsen their struggle over land and resources in more violent ways than before. Drawing on local people's experiences of militarised conservation around Sikumi Forest Reserve, Zimbabwe, the chapter develops the argument that the use of paramilitary personnel and practices leads towards 'violent' rather than 'protected' forests. A violent forest, in turn, exposes the conflicted role of the state, which is manifest in the way a 'people and forests' discourse is used to obfuscate conservation strategies as benign and inclusive while this is not the case in practice.